The present invention relates to an animation generating method in a design supporting system utilized to design various types of apparatuses and of software. In particular, the present invention concerns such a method that a component of a design objective system is recognized as an instance of an object oriented program, and a variation in the instances is displayed as an animation.
In development of electronic apparatuses such as a computer, a support by software is necessarily required. In particular, it is important for an investigating stages of a new model and also a new system that various constructive sketches of the apparatuses are inputted as models; a simulation is carried out; a simulation result is evaluated; and the above-described operations are repeated so as to reconsider a design policy. Also, it is important that the design policy is correctly transferred to relevant staff members with easy understandings.
Similarly, also in development of a software application system, a model is interactively manufactured at a designing stage for a demanded specification. Then, it is the major work to show this model to a client.
An object-oriented language is to provide methodology for constituting software in which an "object" is used as a component, and owns a high applicability to a design matter. A basic element of an object-oriented language program is defined by a class. In a class definition, both a slot group as a variable of this class, and a method group corresponding to a procedure related to this class are defined.
A concrete program element in accordance to this class definition is called as an "instance". There is provided a class corresponding to a sort of a component contained in an object to be designed, in which an attribute of this component and an element thereof are defined as a slot, whereas an effect of a component is defined as a method. Then, a model having various objects is architected by combining the instances of the class, and then a simulation is performed by initiating the method.
To effectively utilize the above-described object-oriented type simulator, an improvement in the interface is expected when an instance is inputted and a result of a simulation is outputted. As to an input of an instance, it is important that the instance input is available in the interactive mode, and also both the component and entire model under input operation can be easily grasped. Accordingly, it is expected to enter an instance in a form of figure.
In view of easy representation of a function of a design model, not only a structure of this model is illustrated, but also an operation of a simulation is displayed by way of animation.
With respect to both the figure input/output of the instance, and also the object-oriented design support by the figure input/output, it is described in, for instance, the literature on Object-Oriented Software Technique Symposium held by Information Processing Society of Japan, entitled "ODETTE: Object-Oriented CLOS Based Design Supporting Architecture Environment" pages 1 to 11, (1991). In this relevant technique, setting of the animation is executed by described in the program both the method definition to initiate the animation and the method definition for the animation.
On the other hand, JP-A-3-271934 (1991) discloses a software design supporting system such that verification of the software design is supported by representing the animation indicative of the data transfer/receive conditions between the modules based on the design information. That is, when a definition is made of an actor (i.e., unit of process corresponding to module of program) and a script (to define detailed contents of actor) based upon a predetermined grammar, and then they are executed, a data flow is displayed as an animation.